Garfish Dance
by Nerdellect
Summary: Companion piece to Stomp Dance. Some of the most notable scenes from Twilight (plus a few extra) with Jasper and Nashoba. Told mostly from outsider POVs. [Jasper/OC]
1. Meeting the Locals

**A/N:** First, I would strongly suggest reading my other fic, _Stomp Dance_ , before attempting to read this one. Although _Garfish Dance_ is not exactly a sequel to _Stomp Dance_ , it does contain many references and allusions that only make sense if you've read the first story.

This fic came about due to my own unwillingness to wait until I finish _Stomp Dance_ to write these two as a vampire couple. Basically, _Stomp Dance_ is the journey, and _Garfish Dance_ is the destination (with a little more journey added in). Enjoy!

 **Best read in Full.**

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 **Chapter I – Meeting the Locals**

 _October 1st, 2005 – Forks High School, Forks, Washington_

 _(Bella's first day at school)_

Bella Swan sighs, barely listening to the inane chatter of Jessica, Angela and Mike at her side as she lets her eyes drift aimlessly around the room. The lunchroom of Forks High School is quite possibly the most depressing place she has ever set foot in. The eggshell colored walls are surprisingly pristine considering their constant proximity to the large, grease filled fryers responsible for the current slop on her plate, but their cleanliness only serves to bring home just how false and sterile the whole room feels.

The earthy brown chairs, which are just as uncomfortable as they look, encircle equally brown round tables in a half-hazard geometric pattern long ruined by the ebb and flow of high school popularity contests and clique shifts. The shadows caused by the foreign flags hung over the already blind-darkened windows— _Portugal, Denmark, Luxembourg_ she counts lazily— and Forks' dreary weather have combined to cast an almost unnatural haze around the room.

She shifts in her hard seat and lifts another fork full of overly-salted food to her mouth, her eyes tracing the off-white bars of weak light as they make their way into the room through the windows that frame the outside entrance to the cafeteria. Although her lunch period is more than halfway through, there are still students slowly slinking their way into the lunchroom—although she doubts all of the latecomers are as beautiful as the ones currently making their way through the glass door.

"Who are they?" Bella whispers in awe, nodding towards the entrance to the cafeteria.

Jessica follows her gaze before turning back to her with a smirk. "Noticed them, have you?" She asks teasingly. "They're Dr. Carlisle and Esme Cullen's foster children. They moved here from Alaska a few years ago." She pauses, looking down at her tray and twirling her fork with a smile. "The big one with all the muscles is Emmet," she continues. "He's with Rosalie, the blond girl who looks like she just walked out of a fashion magazine."

Bella nods distractedly, her eyes on the two aforementioned Cullens. Although she had seen a good number of good looking and physically fit people while living in Phoenix—Arizona _is_ a prime location for the ever trendy 'fit-cation' after all—Emmet and Rosalie are on a whole other level of attractiveness. Heck, if she didn't know any better, she'd say that the word 'attractive' was invented for the sole purpose of describing the two Cullens in front of her.

Bella momentarily forgets her fascination with the walking Aphrodite and Adonis named Rosalie and Emmet in favor of the, for lack of a better term, _exotic_ girl following a few paces behind them.

"You see the girl with the long brown hair—the one with the braids?" Jessica asks, indiscreetly following said girl with her eyes. "That's Ash or Nash or something. Nobody really knows her real name, but all the teachers usually call her Ash."

She's tall, probably around 5'7" or 5'8", with distinctively Native American features. She has long, dark brown hair that has been pulled into two matching braids and left to hang a few inches above the waist of her jeans. Her olive skin, which, Bella notices, is a few shades darker than the rest of the other Cullens', makes her eerie golden eyes appear almost luminescent under the harsh florescent lights of the cafeteria. Bella has the sudden urge to see them up close.

 _She looks like Tiger Lily,_ Bella thinks idly, and then immediately becomes embarrassed by her own crassness. _Oh god, was that racist?_

"And who's that?" Bella asks, gesturing as subtly as she can with her fork towards the handsome blond boy holding the lunchroom door for the mysterious girl. Said girl smiles at him and runs her hand gently across his chest as she makes her way through the cafeteria door. The boy's answering half-smile is almost as breathtaking as the girl's eyes.

Jessica glances over her shoulder briefly before turning back to her with a gossipy grin. "Him? That's her boyfriend, Jasper Hale. He was adopted by the Cullens too."

"They're not actually biologically related," Angela informs the two girls.

"Anyway," Jessica rolls her eyes, "they're totally obsessed with each other—like, totally obsessed. They always take all the same classes and never work with anyone else when it comes to class projects. Plus, they even made up their own language so they can speak to each other without anyone understanding them. Like, how freaky can you get?"

Someone's deep, boisterous laugh sounds from the other side of the cafeteria.

Bella frowns at the catty girl's obvious jealousy and peeps over at the couple before quickly returning her eyes to her lunch tray. In order to reach the end of the—now dwindling—lunch line, they have to pass between her table and another occupied by what she assumes is the whole of the Fork's football team.

 _Geez, they're right there! Could you say that last part any louder, Jessica? I don't think they heard you over in gym class._

She glances back the couple— _Jasper and Ash_ Bella corrects herself. Just as she'd feared, they're making their way towards the girl's table. Bella hurriedly tries to look as friendly and uninteresting as possible.

"Kata impa chibanna?" She hears the brown-haired girl asks her companion, watching as she wraps her slim arm around the blond man's waist; there is a gleam of mischievousness in her golden eyes as she glances at the group and Bella gets the distinct impression that everyone at her table is currently being made fun of. Jessica seems to think the same, quickly sinking into her earth-brown chair with the appearance of someone who'd like to disappear.

The handsome blond man smirks and glares playfully at his girlfriend. "Chinokchinta'shki," he says, placing his arm around his girlfriend's shoulders and pulling her closer to his side. Bella is thankful when he fails to spare the table a glance. "Toksalikat ikchokmo."

"Ii," the girl seems to sigh in disappointment, "chipotatiik nchokma ki'yo." The man kisses her temple, placing a broad hand on the base of her spine to steer her in the direction of the—now very short—lunch line at the back of the cafeteria.

Bella's table lets out a collective sigh of relief.

"Good going, Jessica," Mike mutters sarcastically, giving said girl a look. "Great job introducing the new girl to the locals."

"Whatever," says Jessica, straitening from her slouched position. "I bet they're just talking gibberish anyway. It probably doesn't even _mean_ anything."

"It's a Native American language," Angela informs them all cheerfully. "I'm not sure which one—a lot of them are only spoken by like, less than a 100 people—but it's definitely Native American."

Jessica does not look impressed. "Really, Ange?"

"What?" Angela asks defensively, pushing her pale pink glasses further up her nose. "I like to read—so what?"

Bella clears her throat awkwardly. "Are they usually so," she pauses, searching for the right descriptor "…intimidating?"

Mike hums, chewing on his deep-fried lunch. "Not really. The Cullens don't really talk to a lot of people," he says around a mouth full of food. "Although one time Danny Newman kinda said some not-so-nice things about their sister, Alice—" here he points toward a petite, pixie-like girl currently skipping her way across the lunchroom "—and Ash just kinda stared at the guy for like, five minutes. I don't think I've ever seen someone look so freaked out in my life!"

He laughs and Bella swallows, looking down at the now tasteless food on her tray. Learning about the Cullens had been a welcomed distraction from her short, dreary re-introduction to life in Forks, but now that it's over she can't help but feel slightly disappointed. What use is there in learning about them when she has no chance of _actually_ getting to know them? Bella might be a lot of things—clumsy, scatterbrained, blunt—but she is not stupid. The Cullens are, in regards to the Forks High School Social Ladder, so far above her she can't even see the rungs they're standing on.

"Ohhh," Jessica suddenly coos, breaking Bella out of her thoughts, "and here comes the last of the clan, Mr. I'm-Better-Than-Everyone-Else Cullen."

Jessica's eyes are focused across the cafeteria and Bella turns her head to look at the object of the other girl's ire.

He is the most beautiful man Bella has ever seen.

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 **Notes on all Chickasaw translations:**

All translations are derived from the work of the Chickasaw Nation's language office which happens to be, rather conveniently, headquartered in my home town. I use both Humes' and Munro-Willmond's spellings interchangeably.

"Kata impa chibanna?" **_Who do you want to eat?_**

"Chinokchinta'shki" **_Be nice._**

"Toksalikat ikchokmo." **_Besides, the service would be terrible._** (Approximately)

"Ii, chipotatiik nchokma ki'yo." **_Yes, I'm a bad girl_** _._ (Approximately)

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 **A/N:**

 **Favorite, review, tell me you hate me—just give me some feedback please!**


	2. A Lesson in Linguistics

**A/N:** Okay, this one was supposed to be about the first time Bella goes to the Cullen's house; but, because I have a strange obsession with Edward not being a total ass and leaving Bella to walk into a house of vampires without any type of foreknowledge and an overwhelming urge to write dialogue between these two that doesn't include Bella fawning over Edward's looks, this chapter only covers the ride to the Cullen's house, not the actual meeting.

Although I try to keep with the original timeline for events, some dates are probably wrong or changed. I'm not really sure when Bella first goes to the Cullen's house, but in the _Stomp Dance_ universe it takes place in November. Enjoy!

 **Best read in Full.**

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 **Chapter II – A Lesson in Linguistics**

 _November 1_ _st_ _, 2005 – On the road to the Cullen House_

"What if they don't like me?" Bella asks, fiddling nervously with the cuff of her light blue jacket. "I mean, have you ever taken anyone else to meet them? What were they like with—"

Edward laughs at her from his place in the driver's seat of his silver Volvo. "You're going to a house full of vampires," he asks incredulously, "and your biggest worry is if they'll like you or not?"

"Well," she huffs. "I mean if they eat me, they eat me, right? That's kind of a onetime thing. But if they don't like me, I'll have to deal with that for like, forever."

Edward frowns slightly, gripping the smooth faux-leather of the steering wheel tightly. "I want you to know that I would never, _never_ let anyone hurt you Bella," he says seriously. "Not even my own family."

"I know," she murmurs.

"Besides," he continues more cheerfully, "none of them would ever intentionally try to hurt you. Even if they don't know you that well yet, they know that you're important to me, and anything, or anyone, that's important to one member of my family is important to all members of my family."

Bella's heart warms at his use of the word _yet_ in regards to her level of familiarity with his family. She might not know them that well _yet_ , but that doesn't mean she won't sometime in the future.

"So help me out here," she smiles, looking at him under her lashes. "Give me a few pointers."

"What do you mean?" Edward asks, turning to look at her.

"Well," she hedges. "What are they like? I mean, I see them around school and stuff, but I've never really talked to any of them. What do you think I should know about them before I meet them? Any topics I should avoid? Are there any vampire-only faux pas I should know about?"

"No, there aren't any _vampire-only_ _faux pas_ ," Edward laughs, his eyes crinkling happily as he focuses on the road once more. "Just be yourself, Bella. They're going to love you, I know it."

Bella rolls her eyes. " _Just be yourself_ ," she mocks. "Everyone says that, and they never really mean it. What they _really_ mean is to be the best version of yourself—so, what do I need to know to be the best Bella there is?"

"Well," Edward seems to consider it. "Carlisle and Esme, my father and mother for all intents and purposes, will love you no matter what. Really," he adds when she gives him a dubious look, "the fact that you accepted me for who and what I am is enough for them. They already love you."

Bella sighs, turning to watch the dreary Forks landscape pass her by. "And what about the others?" She asks. "What about your brothers and sisters?"

"I'm going to be honest with you Bella—Rosalie can be a bit of a bitch." He says bluntly, making her whip her head to face him in surprise. She had never heard Edward utter even the slightest bit of profanity before this moment. To be honest, she kind of likes it; it makes him seem more real somehow, less like an age-old vampire and more like the boy he's pretending to be. "But Emmet is a great guy, and as long as you don't go screaming to the hills that we're vampires he won't have a problem with you."

"I would never—" she starts to say, slightly offended.

"I know, I know," he sooths, placing a cold hand on her arm, "but you have to understand that if it got out that we had exposed ourselves to humans my whole family would be in danger." He turns to look at her. "I know you would never do something like that, but Rosalie and Emmet don't know you like I do and they're very protective of the family."

"I guess I understand," Bella says softly.

They fall in to an amicable silence as she contemplates everything Edward has told her. She had never considered the consequences of revealing the Cullen's true nature before. The very idea that she could somehow be putting them in danger just by existing is slightly jarring, but she is honored that Edward finds her trustworthy enough to keep his family's secret.

This beautiful boy, who had risked so much just by speaking to her that day in Biology, trusts her with not only his own safety, but the safety of his entire family, of his entire race.

 _Oh, Edward…_

"What about your other siblings?" Bella asks finally. "You have two more sisters and another brother. Alice, Ash, and Jasper, right?"

"Oh! You wanna' know about the triplets, huh?" Edward laughs softly.

"Triplets?" She asks, slightly confused.

"Alice, Ash, and Jasper—we call them the triplets because they all joined the family at the same time. It's kind of a family joke. Esme said it was as if she had had triplets; you know, gaining them all at once." Edward laughs again, obviously recalling some happy memory with said triplets.

"Huh, I guess that makes sense," Bella smiles. "So, tell me," she nudges him playfully in the side, "what do I need to know about The Triplets to be the best Bella that I can be?"

"Well…" Edward pauses, squinting at the road in front of him. Bella can tell he's choosing his next words carefully and she turns in her seat to give him her full attention. "Jasper is a pretty straight forward guy," he says after a beat. "He tends to be pretty quiet around anyone but Ash, so don't be too offended if he doesn't make much of an effort to talk to you, it's just the way Jasper is."

"Ash talks more than Jasper," Edward continues, "but she has the tendency to switch over to Chickasaw if Jasper's in the room so don't be too freaked out if she suddenly stops speaking English."

"Chickasaw?" Bella asks, intrigued. "So that's what she and Jasper were speaking that day in the cafeteria. Angela said it was some type of Native American language but she wasn't sure which one. I'll have to tell her next time I see her."

"Don't!" Edward blurts, turning looking at her with an almost pleading expression. "Please don't," he says more softly. "Ash is really, I guess you could say, _protective,_ of her native language." He sighs and brings his hand to rub the back of his neck, looking very much like a real teenage boy.

"There are only around seven native speakers left alive, one of them being Ash, and only 500 speakers in the entire world. **(1)** Around ninety-percent of those speakers are over fifty." He continues, frowning, waiving his hand in the small space between his chest and the dashboard as if to pull his next words from the ether.

"It's like this," he says finally, "no one in the Cullens knows how to speak Chickasaw besides Ash and Jasper. It's their thing, something that reminds them of a time before they were turned."

"They knew each other before they were vampires?" Bella asks in surprise. Although she hasn't had much experience with the phenomenon, she'd always assumed that vampire relationships began one of two ways: a human meets a vampire and falls in love, or two vampires come across each other and do the same. She had, rather naïvely she realizes now, never thought about two _humans_ falling in love and becoming vampires together.

It just wasn't how supernatural love stories were supposed to go.

"They're the only members of my family to have met each other when they were both human," Edward says, looking slightly uncomfortable. "But their story isn't mine to tell. I don't know all of it, but I know enough to understand that it's not exactly a happy one."

"You don't know all of it?" Bella frowns confusedly. "But I thought you could read everyone's mind but mine? Couldn't you find out that way?"

"Well, I don't exactly go around trying to read everyone's deepest and darkest secrets," Edward teases lightly, smiling at her when she gives him a pointed look. "I understand what you really meant. Yes, I can read everyone's mind but yours, but that doesn't mean that I can _understand_ everyone's mind, or even correctly interpret what I'm seeing."

"Explain," Bella demands instantly. She had always been fascinated by Edward's ability to read other people's thoughts and was not about to pass up the opportunity to learn more.

"People tend to think in snapshots," Edward says. "An image here, an image there, a broken phrase or stray quote thrown in randomly—but none of it has any context without the feelings associated with those snapshots. Even with the emotions, human thought tends to reassembly a big, jumbled mess more than a coherent stream of consciousness."

"Understanding that mess," he continues, "is even harder when the broken phrases are in a language you don't understand." Bella frowns at him. "Asha and Jasper tend to think in Chickasaw," Edward explains. "So, just because I know that they _are_ thinking something doesn't mean I know _what_ they're thinking."

"Ah," Bella nods in understanding. "You can't understand their language so you can't understand their thoughts. Can you not understand anyone who speaks a foreign language?"

"Only the ones I can speak myself," says Edward. "English, German, and French—and maybe a little Spanish if I really try— are all easily understandable, but anything other than that is just a cacophony of sound with no meaning."

"This is all so interesting," Bella says, popping her leg in anticipation. She couldn't wait to meet his family now. "You all have these really cool powers and origin stories; I wish I had something like that. I feel so, well, _normal_ compared to all of you."

" _Origin stories_?" Edward laughs, showing off his perfect white teeth. "I've told you before Bella, we're not super heroes." He frowns suddenly, turning to face the rain-slicked road once more. "Sometimes far from it." Bella, sensing her boyfriend's dropping mood, reaches out to wrap her small hand in his. He turns towards her and she smiles, squeezing his hand lightly.

"Anyway," Edward says, seeming to shake off his dark thoughts, "Ash will like you as long as you don't do anything to upset Jasper or Alice. She's very protective of them, but considering the fact that Jasper doesn't speak to strangers a lot and the fact that Alice is really excited to meet you, I think you'll get along just fine."

"Alice is excited to meet me?" Bella asks, rather confused. "Why?"

"Well, for one, I've never brought a girl home before, so she's interested in meeting the girl who's caught so much of my attention." Bella blushes a little, looking down at their joined hands shyly. "For another, Alice can kind of," he pauses, looking for the right words, "see things that are going to happen. She knows you're going to be good friends eventually and she's impatient to get to know you."

Bella stares at him in amazement. "Alice can see the future? She can see my future?"

"To a point," Edward hedges. "She can see the future that will be if you continue on a certain path. Change your mind and you change your future."

"Holy shit," Bella blurts, repeating it for good measure, "holy shit."

"She didn't intentionally look into your future," Edward says quickly. "It's just that you're connected to me, or well, you would be connected to me in the future so it just kind of came to her and she wasn't trying to be nosy or anything—"

"No, no, it's fine." Bella tries to reassure him despite her shock. "I didn't think she was spying on me or anything. It's just— _she can see the future, Edward!_ " She says excitedly. "That's so freakin' cool! I mean, I just have no words for how freakin' cool that is."

Edward laughs, squeezing her hand lightly. "Only you, Bella," he says, amused. "Only you would be worried that vampires wouldn't like you and find the fact that a girl you don't even know can see your future is 'cool' instead of intrusive."

"Well," Bella smiles, her cheeks dimpling. She is so happy she could burst. "I guess I'm just special like that."

Edward smiles at her, his eyes warm and his grip firm.

"Yes," he says softly, sincerely. "Yes, yes you are—very special."

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 **Notes:**

 **(1)** This was true when the events of Twilight take place (mid 2000s); today however, there are **_zero_** people who speak Chickasaw as their first language.

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 **A/N:** I would like to point out that the views expressed by Edward about the future relationship between Bella and Ash might not be as accurate as he would like to think. This is simply Edward's assessment of how he _thinks_ Ash will react to Bella, not necessarily how she _will_ react.

 **Favorite, review, tell me you hate me—just give me some feedback please!**


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